How to Make 6 Figures on Amazon: The Pros and Cons

I never thought I’d be able to make a six-figure income from selling things on Amazon, but it’s true! In just a few short years, I’ve gone from making pocket change to pulling in over $100,000 per year in sales. And it’s all thanks to the platform that Amazon provides us sellers. Of course, there are pros and cons to everything – and earning a living on Amazon is no different. In this post, I’ll share with you how to make 6 figures on Amazon through various methods so that you can decide if this is something you want to pursue.

9 Ways to Make Money on Amazon

How to make 6 figures on Amazon? There are many different ways to earn money through Amazon, so find the one that best fits your skillset.

Let’s check out the options.

1. Sell Private Label Products

One of the best things about selling your own line of private-label goods is that once you’ve established yourself, you won’t have to look for new inventory. All you’ll have to do is make sure you always have your most popular items in stock. This means that selling private label products has the potential to become a passive income stream.

Additionally, because you’re selling your own product, you have the potential to earn a much higher profit margin than if you were selling someone else’s product.

And unlike other types of e-commerce businesses where you constantly need to be on the lookout for new products to sell, with a private label business you only need to source a product once. This can give you more time to focus on other aspects of your business.

The disadvantage of a private label product is that your sales may drop for a product, and it can take time to develop new products and compete with other sellers.

If you’re looking to sell your own branded merchandise, then you’ll want to consider both private labeling and creating your own product line. While both options have their benefits, there are some downsides to each one. Creating your own line of products requires a lot more work, and you’ll need to have the capital upfront to pay for production. If it can’t be patented, then your competitors may be able to easily duplicate your success.

How do you start selling private label products?

While a manufacturer’s product is one option for selling your own products, it’s not the only one. You can also create your own brand and sell it.

Another option for selling a product is finding a factory to produce it. There are many factories on sites like Alibaba that are willing to produce products according to customer specs.

Most Amazon FBA Sellers use the manufacturer’s own products, but if you’re doing this, it’s quite easy for competitors to duplicate your product.

If you create a product that’s unique, you may want to patent it. This will protect your product from competitors who may try to duplicate it.

If there’s no way you can get the patent for your idea, try getting an agreement with the manufacturer that they won’t use the idea you came up with for anybody else. This can help you maintain long-term success.

Creating a custom product or service will take more time, but it’s more likely to lead to long-term sustainability.

Selling custom products can be great for your business.

The benefit of creating and selling your own product is that you get the patent, it’s easier to stand out, and most manufacturers are willing to help you.

2. Retail Arbitrage

With retail arbitrage, you’ll be buying products from wholesalers and then selling them for a higher price. You won’t have to create a brand and your own line of products.

To find great deals, you can use a combination of online and offline sources.

There are a few different ways to find products that people want to buy. You can look for hot items on Amazon itself. Look at the bestseller lists in each category, and see if there are any products that you could source for less.

You can also look for popular items on other sites like Walmart.com or Target.com. If you can find them selling for less than they cost on Amazon, there’s a good chance you can make a profit.

You can also look for clearance items in brick-and-mortar stores. This is a great way to find deeply discounted items that you can sell for a nice profit on Amazon.

Once you’ve found some potential products, it’s time to figure out how much you can sell them for. The easiest way to do this is to use the Amazon FBA calculator. Just enter the price you paid for the item, and the calculator will tell you how much you can expect to sell it for after Amazon’s fees (and shipping costs, if applicable).

Finding good deals is the key to profiting from retail arbitrage. You’ll need to be diligent in looking for deals, and be prepared to act quickly when you find a good one.

While you can still make money with Retail Arbitrage, Amazon has made it difficult for small-scale retailers to sell their goods. In many cases, it’s nearly impossible for an Amazon Seller to qualify for certain product categories.

Getting approval from Amazon to sell certain items can be extremely difficult for small business owners.

If you don’t have the approval of those in charge, you can’t sell those products.

One of the main reasons I don’t prefer the retail arbitrage model is because Amazon could change its policies at any time, which could result in me being shut out of the marketplace.

Retail Arbitrage is a great business model for anyone who wants to start earning money right away. You don’t have to build your brand or deal with any customer complaints.

While retail arbitraging can be profitable, it’s not for everybody. Some of the downsides to arbitraging over at Amazon are needing to look for products to buy and resell, changes in policy by Amazon, and being okay with changing strategies.

3. Sell Wholesale Goods

If you’re looking to get into selling products on Amazon, one option is to buy products from wholesale distributors and sell them. This approach is a cross between private label and retail arbitrage, giving you the best of both worlds. You’ll be able to offer existing products without the need to create your own brand or product line.

This approach has the potential to be successful if you find a few good products to sell. You could potentially sell these items for a long time if they are in demand.

Finding a few products that sell well can eventually lead to you making a lot of money. This is very similar to the private labeling strategy where finding a product that sells means you can make a lot of profit.

Selling wholesale can be complicated, especially when you need approval from Amazon to sell certain products in that niche.

Sometimes getting approval for a call can be a difficult process.

One of the best things about Amazon is that you don’t need to create your own brand. You’re able to sell products created by other vendors, giving you the opportunity to grow and scale up your business.

There are a few downsides to wholesale sales through Amazon.com. First, the margins can be slim, sometimes as low as 5%. Second, some wholesalers require large minimum purchase amounts. Third, some manufacturers are already established on Amazon.com, which can make it hard for you to find new products. Lastly, you’ll need to have approval from Amazon before you can sell in certain product categories.

4. Sell Old Belongings

Another option for making money is by selling your old items. One of the most popular ways to do this is by reselling your textbooks.

Used cameras, for example, can retain value if they’re not too old, and there’s lots of demand for them.

When selling used items on Amazon, it’s important to be aware of the restrictions in place to ensure that the products you’re selling are safe for customers. By being mindful of these restrictions, you can sell used items with confidence, knowing that you’re providing a safe and reliable product.

You can start selling things on Amazon with little investment. You can do it part-time or full-time, depending on your needs and how much time you have.

The amount of time it can take to source, list, and package an item for sale on Amazon is a drawback. However, the low cost of listing and the potential for high sales volume make up for it.

5. Publish E-Books

If you’re looking to publish your ebook, Amazon has millions upon millions of people who buy ebooks. It’s a great place to do it.

If you’re looking to self-publish your own book, it’s not as complicated as you may think. You can hire a freelancer on sites like UpWork or Freelancer to format your manuscript for you. With a little work, you can have your self-published book out on the market and earn money.

Some authors make a small amount of money each month by selling their books online.

Some businesses choose to grow their sales by continually publishing more ebooks.

One of the best things about selling your books through Amazon is that you don’t have to worry about keeping an inventory. This can be a good way to earn passive revenue if your book continues to do well. Another plus is that it’s easy to scale up your business by publishing more titles.

If you’re considering selling your e-book through Amazon, you should know that most books don’t earn much money. Also, most book sales are short-lived. And, most people who make good money with this strategy are continuously creating new products.

6. Amazon Associates

As an Amazon affiliate, you can promote Amazon’s products and earn a commission for each product sold. This is an awesome way for affiliates to make money by marketing products that they love.

There are a few reasons why the Amazon Associates program is so popular among bloggers.

First of all, the program is open to any website, big or small.

Second, you can promote the products that best fit the topic of your website or blog.

Third, your conversion rate will be very high because many people already know and trust the brand.

And finally, even if someone buys something different, you can still earn a commission.

Some online marketers create websites focused on a specific topic and then make money by linking to products through the Associate program.

For instance, you can create a blog about the outdoors and link it to products for sale on Amazon.com.

One of the best things about this approach to building websites is the potential for it to become passive.

Assuming you have your website set up with the right SEO and are getting traffic from Google, you really don’t need to do much to keep it running. You’ll want to continue to add new content, but this can be outsourced quite easily.

There are a ton of benefits to being an affiliate for Amazon. You can potentially earn an income by promoting their products. By building a website, you can build up a valuable asset that you can also sell. New sites can get accepted into the affiliate program.

While it’s a great way to make money, the Amazon Associate Program only pays out a small commission for each product you sell. Plus, you’ll only earn a commission if the visitors you refer make a purchase within the first 24 hours.

7. Merch By Amazon

With Merch by Amazon, you can upload a design and when a customer buys it, they’ll order it from Amazon and it’ll be printed and shipped to the customer. You don’t have to worry about inventory or anything like that.

In order to use this program, you’ll need to be invited by Amazon. The cool thing about this is that you don’t have to stock any items, as they’ll be printed on demand.

If you’re a graphic designer, you could design shirts for Merch by Amazon and own the rights and royalties to the work.

The appeal of this passive income opportunity is the potential for you to earn income without lifting a finger. When you have multiple successful products in your store, they will continue to earn you cash with almost no effort on your part.

If you’re looking to earn some extra money, selling your artwork on merchandise through sites like Merch by Amazon is a fantastic way to do it. You won’t have to deal with any physical stock, and the start-up costs aren’t too high.

There are a few downsides to selling on Merch. First, getting an invite to sell on Amazon can be quite difficult. Second, if your product is successful, chances are someone else will copy it. Finally, if you’re not a Photoshop whiz, you’ll need to hire someone to design your shirts which adds to the costs.

8. Amazon Handmade

If you are artsy, you can sell your handmade products through Amazon Handmade. This platform can reach millions of Amazon customers.

In order to be approved for selling on Amazon Handmade, you must apply and be accepted. The approval process ensures only handmade, unique products are sold.

You can sell products on Amazon however you’d like, and they take 15% of any revenue you earn. You can also sell your items through the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service, or you can choose to handle your own shipping.

While you can get your products in front of millions of potential customers with little effort, you have less control over how your products are presented to potential customers.

The fees can also be high, depending on the product category.

Plus, you may have to compete with other sellers who are selling similar products. 

While it requires a lot of work to create products to sell on Amazon, it can be a good option for crafters.

9. Dropshipping

A drop shipping business is one that sells a product without having any stock on hand. When a store receives a purchase from a client, they contact their suppliers, who will then send the items to the customer. customer’s door. Dropshipping is a great way to start an online business with little up-front investment.

The main downside to dropshipping is that suppliers can eat into your profits. Many suppliers will take a large percentage of your potential earnings, as they handle all aspects of the business for you.

As the person responsible for quality control, it is your job to make sure that products meet customer expectations. This includes checking reviews and ensuring that products from suppliers are up to par. Negative reviews can reflect poorly on your department, so it is important to be proactive in addressing any issues.

If you have a knack for marketing, you can make a lot of money from it. So, if you’re good at marketing (or are willing to learn how to get product exposure), you can start your product research using the same steps above for retail arbitrage.

How to Make 6 Figures on Amazon

Private labeling is the process of having another company produce products that will be sold with your brand.

Amazon FBA is a game-changer for small businesses and individual sellers. It allows you to send your inventory in bulk to an Amazon warehouse where they will store, pick, pack and ship your products as well as provide customer service on your behalf.

Then, when your customer purchases a product, you let Amazon handle shipping the product to that customer.

When you use FBA to sell your products, you don’t have to worry about fulfilling individual orders, returns, or customer service issues related to shipping. This allows you to focus on other aspects of your business and leaves the shipping logistics to Amazon.

With FBA, you can send in hundreds or thousands of items at a time, which means you don’t have to make daily trips to the post office.

This is a popular option among people looking to make money from home.

When you resell other people’s products or when you dropship, you outsource all of the manufacturing and shipping.

What do you get out of hiring someone else to do all of these tasks?

You can create a business that generates passive income, which requires minimal maintenance.

This is an appealing concept, but it actually works well for many businesses. More than half of products being sold on Amazon.com are actually sold by third parties.

Here’s how we made 6 figures through Amazon FBA.

In August of 2015, we were thrilled when our inventory arrived and our first product was live for sale on Amazon! We figured it would take a while to start making sales, but we actually sold 1,000 units in about three weeks. We were so happy that our product was being well-received by customers and that we had to quickly order more inventory to keep up with the demand!

Our second order of 1,000 units sold out in three weeks. We had a number of four-star and five-star reviews on our product by this time. We started looking into possibilities for a second product under the same brand.

In October, we placed an order for 5,000 units of our new product, hoping to make a big splash with Christmas buyers.

We were thrilled to see that our product was so popular that we sold out of inventory a few days before Christmas. We were out of stock for about a week until our next order came in, but we are glad to have been able to meet the demand during the holiday season.

During the holiday season, we made over $50,000 in gross sales from a single product. We were doing no advertising at that time, and the product cost only about $16.

The success of our product can be attributed to its quality, our better photos and listing than our competitors, and the massive exposure that Amazon provides.

Scaling up

In 2016, we focused on adding new products. Our original plan was to sell one or two different products, but we ended up expanding our offerings. This allowed us to reach a wider range of customers and grow our business.

We decided to grow our product line so that our business would be more diversified and less likely to fail if a single product stopped selling. This allowed us to add new products and color variations, which helped us increase our profits.

By the end of 2016, we had several different products under our brand, and each product had two or three color variations. None of our other products matched the success of our first product, but they were all profitable.

Two of the products did quite well, even though they weren’t home runs. The others averaged a few sales per day, which is still good.

Exit strategy

Although the business had grown nicely and we were making a considerable amount of money from it, we decided to sell the business.

We sold our business because we wanted to invest our money into something else. We believed that someone would be able to take the company further.

After years of hard work, we finally sold our Amazon FBA business for a six-figure sum. It was a great experience and we learned a lot, but we’re glad to be moving on to new projects.

Conclusion

So, there you have it – how to make 6 figures on Amazon and the pros and cons of each selling method. If you’re looking to make a serious income through selling on the platform, then I hope this has given you some food for thought. There are definitely downsides to earning such a high income (like having to pay taxes!), but in my opinion, the upsides far outweigh them. So if you’re willing to put in the work, I say go for it! You might just be surprised at how much money you can make.

    Manuela is the PR Manager at Flippa with a love for empowering entrepreneurs to take control of their financial freedom.

    Recommended for you

    Discover more from Flippa

    Subscribe to our Blog

    Get the latest blog posts, insight reports and news directly to your inbox every week.